| In an ethnographic study of the oldest generation of coal miner families in central Pennsylvania Michrina suggests that these families used the self-image of the "little man" to modulate acceptable emotional practices in an effort to maintain their dignity. The search for dignity oriented the mining community, according to their realistic appraisal of their power, either inward towards family and social groups or outward in action against mine owners.;Michrina also suggests that when emotional practices, emotion-related perceptions, and emotion-laden morals were directed towards members within the group, they may have taken attention away from the owners' exertion of power. The cases analyzed include the coal strike of 1927, the work ethic, and dealings with danger.;Memories of the 1927 strike emphasized emotional practices associated with resentment and contempt for strikebreakers and company-controlled police. These practices were reported much less frequently to be directed toward coal operators or foremen.;Men's conversations about work included the emotional practices constituting the work ethic. Their eagerness to please, their fearful expectations of bad economic times and their pride in stamina, skill, and morals appeared to have been exploited by management during the move to more intense supervision.;In dealing with danger, miners and their wives used emotional practices which seemed to shift responsibility for safety away from the company. These practices included: learning from the calm demeanor of parents, expression of a philosophy of kind fate, disallowed discourses between men and women and miners blaming themselves for accidents.;In the process of performing the field study Michrina finds grounds for critiquing the ethnographic practice of participant-observation. Taking notes when informants were unaware seemed to invade their privacy, break a trust, and effectively treat them as a means to an end. He likewise questions the notion of giving history back to the people. His analyses of several histories written by members of Pennsylvania's mining communities indicates that their descriptions largely omitted conflict within the community and between miners and owners. This was because the themes of these books were celebrations of a hometown or of the occupation of mining. |
